The Transcript

By Emily Feldmesser
and Sara Jane Sheehan
Transcript Correspondents

Nothing was off limits at Steve Hofstetter’s Jan. 28 comedy show, hosted by Campus Programming Board (CPB) and Sigma Phi Epsilon (Sig Ep).

The show opened with a performance from Pitch Black, Ohio Wesleyan’s women’s a cappella group. They performed three songs fresh off their set list from their International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) competition the previous weekend.

Hofstetter came on stage for about an hour of stand-up. Hofstetter’s website says he practices “comedy without apology.”

According to his website, Hofstetter is an original columnist for College Humor. His comedy videos have millions of YouTube views, and he’s written three books and made many television appearances. Hofstetter performs at over 100 schools every year.

During his OWU performance, Hofstetter joked at many issues related to students. From the city of Delaware to drugs to airports to the media, nothing was left uncovered in his show.

“It was the kind of humor where you didn’t want to laugh because he was harsh,” said sophomore Kristen Puckett, CPB president. “But everyone was laughing the whole time, which I was happy about.”

According to some members of the audience, though, Hofstetter was not as funny as they expected.

“Some perceived him as offensive, which I completely get, but that comes with the territory,” Puckett said.

Pucket said she was really happy about the turnout at the show. She said about a hundred people showed up, one of the largest crowds they’ve gotten in a while.

Puckett said they got Hofstetter to come through Sigma Phi Epsilon. Hofstetter is a brother of Sig Ep and the OWU chapter reached out to CPB to bring him to campus.

Junior Jake Miller, president of Sig Ep, said he was nervous about the turnout due to a late start advertising the event.

“Hofstetter has spoken at the Sig Ep National Conclave (a national Sig Ep event) before, so we knew what to expect in his show,” Miller said.

The brothers of Sig Ep had an opportunity to personally meet Hofstetter.

“It was really cool to meet another Sig Ep, and Hofstetter likes to meet different Sig Eps at his shows,” Miller said.

Sophomore Kelly Rand, CPB vice-president, said organizations like CPB go to the National Association for Campus Activities conference every year to see and book entertainment.

“[CPB’s] purpose is to bring fun entertainment to campus,” she said.

Puckett and Rand said they are really looking forward to the events they have coming up in the spring.

Puckett said this event is not a replacement for Crossroads or Springfest, but “there was not a good turn out for the amount of work we put into for Crossroads or Springfest.”

Rand said their next event is the Roller Rink on Feb. 15, which will include a skating rink in the Benes rooms, free food and a photo booth.

Puckett also said CPB has OWU’s Got Talent and Dakaboom, an event with comedians, coming in March. CPB also hosts Day on the Jay in the spring.

Rand said CPB is always open to suggestions from students about events should be held on campus, but there are no guarantees an event will be held. To contact CPB, see their Facebook page.

By Samantha Simon
Transcript Reporter

Captain Jennifer Cochran starts her 24 hour duty at 6 a.m. every third day of the week, and she wouldn’t trade her career for anything.

It is the job where you can be watching MTV’s Buckwild one minute, and on the scene of a fatal car accident the next.
It is the life of a paramedic.

“I work 10 full days a month and get to really help people, I wouldn’t trade it for any other career,” Cochran said.

Cochran knew she wanted to be a paramedic in high school, so she decided to ride along with someone she knew in the fire department to make sure it was the right fit for her.

She loved the energy and it felt right, so she began her first EMT-B class. Upon completion of the course and obtaining a license, she worked for a private ambulance service and then joined Delaware County EMS in 1997. Cochran was promoted to Lieutenant in 2000, and then to captain in 2011.

As Captain Cochran said she was able to expand what she calls her second family, as she oversees a larger group of crew members throughout the county.

“We spend a third of our lives together,” she said. “We fight, we take care of each other and we look out for each other.”

Cochran doesn’t exaggerate when she said she treats her crew like family. Cochran’s morning began at Coldstone Creamery to pick up a cake for Chuck’s birthday, a paramedic stationed at medic 7 in Harlem Township.

“I usually bake cakes for everyone’s birthday, but recently have just run out of time,” Cochran said.

Cochran said she has gotten anywhere from zero to 13 calls in a 24 hour shift. This shift appears to be a little different for her as I will be riding along, observing but not intervening.

I am told to stay in the vehicle unless I am told it is clear, and to remove myself if I feel I cannot stomach what is happening.

The two crew members on duty, Justin McLaughlin and Keith Tussey, said they have seen “just about everything.”

“The ones involving children are the worst,” McLauglin said. “Those are the ones that really stay with you.”

McLaughlin thinks back and remembers some really ridiculous circumstances that he witnessed.

Tussey and McLaughlin have been on hundreds of calls together, they tell me, and begin laughing in remembrance.

“The zit incident was probably the stupidest one,” they recall.

I sit wondering what the zit incident could even mean. They explain that a trucker at 2 a.m. had a zit that “wouldn’t stop bleeding,” so they took him to the hospital.

The two reminisce about calls they’ve had, pausing, to either laugh or remark on how serious or dangerous the situation really was.

“Delaware County is a tremendous place when it comes to resources made available to first responders and paramedics; we have about fifteen units just in this county and the population is only at 100,000,” McLaughlin said.

“You can’t throw a cat in the city without a unit responding,” he said. “We are also fortunate with the quality and range of hospitals nearby; Riverside has a great cardiac program, along with the burn center at OSU. We can transport two patients safely, but there are so many medics around here it’s not done very often.”

Tussey said that they both have kids so when they go home at 6 a.m. it’s nice because they’re still asleep.

“I’d rather have 24 hour shifts, than eight hour shifts and the only thing that really does pose a major problem, is that every third Christmas and Thanksgiving we have to work,” Tussey said.

Each county truck has three paramedics.

“Jenny tries to be the boss of us; we give her a rough time because we joke around a lot,” Tussey said. “She has to go on most calls, and when she is not needed she still often comes to supervise us. She cares about her job and the people we serve.”

Cochran tells me it is time to deliver the birthday cake, and I hop into her truck with my DCEMS jacket on, feeling slightly overwhelmed.

The ice cream cake sitting in the back next to a first-aide bag may have not been the right choice if we need to quickly respond to a call.

Cochran may not have thought the ice cream cake through because this is her life; she squeezes these errands in throughout the day with the ongoing possibility of needing to respond quickly to a scene whether it is life threatening or just routine.

Pulling up to Medic 7 in Harlem Township, a more rural area, seems quiet and slow paced, but boy am I wrong.

Birthday boy Chuck McNaab is inside with a wide-grin after receiving his red velvet-strawberry ice cream cake.

Cochran asked McNaab to give me a tour of their headquarters, and the tour turns into McNaab’s life story of becoming a paramedic.

“We are paid for what we are willing to do,” he said confidently. “Back in the day there was no guarantee you could get medical care, prior to that funeral homes had a bed in the back of the car you could hop on and they’d drive you to the hospital. Now, Delaware County has more than enough resources.”

“I started in 1997, and have been here 15 years now, I’ll be sixty when I can retire,” McNaab said. “But that’s ok, because I love this work.”

He also went on to explain how he quit the fire department because he got too banged up and it was taking a toll on his body.
“Doing EMS is a whole lot healthier, aside from back injuries,” McNaab said.

McNaab made a point of saying that patients come before pride.

“When someone is hurt we will work together to get the job done,” he said. “Sometimes after a call where someone dies we often say that we ‘killed one today,’ we may employ humor as a defense mechanism. We have debriefings for the really disturbingly gory things, but we also have our crew mates to depend on, and look to for support.”

McNaab said that sometimes patient stories really stay with you.

He told me about an alcoholic woman in the area who they would get called to at least once a week. Shaking his head, McNaab said that this woman treated the crew the same way every time, where she made two of the crew members bad guys and one would be the good guy.
“I like you, the other two, well those guys steal from me, and I know you can help me,” he said, mocking the woman.

“It is always something with her, but then we saw her out on a different call where she sober and not the patient,” McNaab said. “She said she was sorry and that she would bake us some cookies and sure enough she baked us the cookies, but then two weeks later we were back at her house and I was the ‘idiot’ again. That’s part of the job and you just really can’t let it get to you.”

“We have to go, we got a run,” said Cochran, hurrying in the room.

I hopped in the truck and learned there was a gas leak at a church, and Cochran will need to stage the scene in case anyone gets hurt.
“We are the furthest away we could possibly be,” said Cochran, as she stepped on the gas and the lights and sirens wailed.

I sat and watched the road as cars pulled over for us, reminding myself of why I am in this vehicle. While in route, the dispatcher told us that the call was cancelled and we were no longer needed.

Cochran asked me if I felt scared at all. Immediately I told her no, but also realized there was no time for panic, and understood what the paramedics had been explaining to me all day. That it is a job that cannot allow you to insert your own fears and anxieties into the situation. That to do so, would negatively affect the care of the patient, and would also make the job even more challenging than it already is.

“You get the sad ones.” Cochran said. “You get the ones where you get to save people, you also get to change people’s lives and intervene, we change showerheads, we clean bathrooms and you do it because you care and it is your job. One of the paramedics even calls to check up on his patients after two or three days to see how they are doing”.

“I try to not let any call get to me,” Cochran shrugs. “We go on so many runs we need to view every situation as an emergency and not panic, because if we panic everybody else panics. You have to be calm. I once thought about being a nurse, but the constant changing aspect of this job is what I love, and I could never be in a hospital all day.”

Paramedics live the life of a normal person for much of the day. One minute they are at a familiar Taco Bell, eating something they probably wouldn’t recommend to their patients, and the next minute they are at a suicide shooting wearing a bullet proof vest.
McLaughlin, jokingly said that his wife told him they are only married today because he goes away every third day.

Paramedics possess true dedication. They offer an unparalleled level of care to both their patients and their colleagues.

By Spenser Hickey
Assistant Copy Editor

The day before his assassination, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said in a speech that he had been to the mountaintop and looked upon “the promised land.”

On Martin Luther King Day, the OWU community celebrated both King’s legacy and the second inauguration of President Barack Obama, a step toward King’s promised land.

The celebration began with a breakfast in the Benes Rooms, included a noon presentation on King by Black Men of the Future and ended with a lecture by Professor Emmanuel Twesigye on Obama’s inauguration and King’s dream.

The breakfast’s main speaker was the Rev. Albert Brinson, a friend of King’s who was ordained by both King and King’s father.

The on-campus breakfast, which was held for the 20th year in a row, was conducted by Rosalind Scott, chair of the MLK Celebration Committee.

OWU and the Delaware community have been holding events in honor of Rev. King for 45 years, including a march from the Liberty Community Center to Grey Chapel in January 1968, when King was still alive.

Scott said 350 people attended this year’s event, including Delaware residents, students, local businessmen, and people from the Columbus area.

While tickets were $20 per seat, student tickets were available for free, and students were allowed to go to the event instead of classes, something Scott said may not have been widely known.

Black Men of the Future held a presentation on King in Hamilton-Williams Campus Center at noon, playing part of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Members also spoke about King, read poems and displayed artwork of King.

Sophomore Shakira Braxton, president of the Student Union on Black Awareness, which includes BMF as an umbrella organization, said in an email that she was “appalled” by the OWU community’s response to the presentation.

She said that, even with a microphone, members of BMF had trouble making themselves heard over the noise.

“Members of our community thought its ridiculous that a program like that was not more positively received,” she said.
Twesigye’s lecture focused on the relationship between King and Obama and whether Obama’s second inauguration showed that King’s dream of racial harmony had been realized.

“Without King there wouldn’t have been an Obama,” Twesigye said.

Twesigye spoke and showed a Powerpoint with notes on King’s dream and whether it had been realized with Obama’s inauguration.

“King’s dream has been partially incarnated and realized in Obama,” one slide read. Twesigye also described how Obama’s inauguration reflected King’s life and legacy. One of the Bibles used to swear him in was King’s personal Bible and had been provided by King’s family with a request that the president sign it. Before the inauguration, Twesigye said, Obama visited the monument with his family and “paid homage” to King.

After the events, Twesigye, Braxton, university chaplain Jon Powers, and politics and government professor Joan McLean all spoke in interviews about King’s legacy.

Powers said he saw King as being part folk hero, part prophet, and said that the larger than life folk hero aspect is emphasized over the prophetic image, which challenges us to look at ourselves.

All four of them agreed that King’s vision of an America with racial harmony had not been fully reached.

McLean said that “parts” of the dream had been realized, but that King championed the rights of all who have not had access to the American dream.

“We still have poverty, we still go to war too often, in his eyes I believe,” McLean said. “We’ve moved closer, but there’s still lots of what was contained in the dream to be looked at.”

McLean also mentioned that while the nation has elected an African-American president twice, there have only been seven African-American senators in history.

Braxton said that while the election of Obama is a tremendous step, “social and institutional racism and the discrimination of all people” are still issues today.

Powers said that today was “a very different world” from when he grew up in the 1950s and 60s, when lynchings and segregation still took place.

“There’s cultural and practical things that have changed,” he said.

He still sees “rabid…racist hatred” in America though, particularly targeted toward Barack Obama.
Powers, who was in college when King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated, said he fears the President may be assassinated as well.

“It only takes … one crazy person and a magic moment,” Powers said. “I have that fear. I’m not a worrier or a fearful person; this isn’t the way I want to live my life.”

He added that while he grew up in “violent times,” violence still exists today.

“When a congresswoman can be gunned down in open air, when people go into a movie theater or an elementary school and start randomly shooting, I can’t imagine those things happening when I was growing up,” said Powers. “In some ways it’s crazier.”

Braxton, Powers and Tweisgye each said that increased education would help address the ongoing problem of racism. Braxton said ignorance is a big part of discrimination, and that people need to meet members of other races personally, rather than relying on media-based stereotypes.

Twesigye added that both sides need to work together to combat prejudice and injustice.

Powers praised the University for having minority groups such as SUBA, BMF, Sisters United, ProgressOWU and Horizons International, and for classes offered by the sociology-anthropology, politics and government and black world studies departments.

“I think that those of us who fervently believe in King’s vision need to not give up, but to keep pressing forward on [educating],” said Powers, who described himself as a “hopeless optimist.”

By Ellin Youse
A&E Editor

Residents of Ohio Wesleyan’s Small Living Units [SLUs] experienced excited anticipation and careful consideration last weekend as they recruited and interviewed prospective new additions to their homes.

The SLUs’ recruitment period, or SLUsh week, is each SLUs’ opportunity to promote itself on campus and interview applicants who identify strongly with the house mission statement. Throughout the week, each SLU holds an open house event that allows OWU students to meet the residents of the house and learn more about the SLU’s mission and involvement. Those interested in applying for a SLU can pick up an application and schedule an interview.

The number of applicants the SLUs ask back to the house depends on several variables, the first being the number of graduating seniors in the house. The second is the maximum occupancy of the house–for example, the Modern Foreign Language House (MFL) can hold 10 occupants maximum, while the House of Peace and Justice can take up to 17. Because each house has a limited number of open spots, senior Colleen Waickman, a resident of the Women’s House, said makes the decision process tiresome as it requires an intense amount of deliberation.

“It takes time and dedication to decide how you and your housemates would like your community to look in the coming year,” Waickman said. “Furthermore, there are so many amazing applicants and only a few spots that open each year, making decisions really tough. Although SLUsh week can be exhausting, it’s still very exciting and totally worth it.”

The SLUsh process isn’t just nerve-wracking for the current residents. Junior Kevin De La Cruz, a Citizens of the World House (COW) resident, said the SLUsh process is “definitely stressful” for the applicants hoping to find their home in a SLU.

“It’s just like anything that takes control out of your hands,” he said. “Not knowing whether or not you’ll be living exactly where you want to live can make anyone nervous.”

Junior Erin Parcells, a resident of MFL, agreed that the SLUsh process can be overwhelming as an applicant.

“You obviously like the house’s theme or you wouldn’t have applied,” she said. “You obviously expressed interest in living in the house so you want the people living in the house to like you in your 15-minute allotted time slot, so, yes, it is nerve-wracking.”

Parcells said that while the process can be intimidating, applicants usually feel more comfortable during their interviews, which often become effortless conversation. As for the residents, Parcells said SLUsh is “just really exciting.”

“It’s so cool to see so many people interested in your house, and you can only take it as a compliment,” Parcells said. “This year we had just shy of 30 applicants. It’s very flattering.”

The kind of occupant desired by a SLU is also variable, but this time in relationship to the applicant’s passion for the SLU’s mission statement.

“I can only speak for MFL, but we usually want someone who is rich and popular. Oh, and attractive,” Parcells said, laughing. “Kidding! We look for someone who’s super interested in languages and cultures, someone who gets excited when talk of travel comes up and is excited about going through the process and about us.

“We think it’s really important when someone loves the house without ever saying those words. People who really love language and culture can easily talk about how great language and culture are, without ever having to say exactly that. We never go for popularity; we go for people who we believe would do really well in the house and would contribute a lot to it.”

According to De La Cruz, extensive conversation and passion for the mission of the house are crucial during the SLUsh process because the applicants are not just applying for housing, but for community.

“Unlike dorm life, SLU life connects you with a community of people who share your same passions and interests,” De La Cruz said. “In a SLU you’re not only living with friends, you’re living with people who you can relate to, and who relate to you.”

In keeping with the idea of community, Parcells said an applicant who has little interest in the house mission and is mostly interested in a living option outside of the dorms and easy to spot. But for those individuals who are intensely driven and interested in finding others who are equally passionate, Parcells said the SLUs are the ideal home.

“To me, there is nothing cooler than living in a house with a bunch of my closest friends on campus and concentrating on a subject that I love,” Parcells said.

“People who are just as enamored with a subject as you are teach you things everyday. God bless the SLUs.”